Chino Amobi

Virginia-based producer Chino Amobi helped establish NON WORLDWIDE, the collective devoted to experimental artists from the African diaspora. His productions fuse grime, dark ambient, industrial textures, and spoken word into a dense, politically charged whole, punctuated by gunshots, sonic booms, and other jarring sounds. Born in Alabama to Nigerian parents, he first experimented with hip-hop alongside his brother during adolescence. While studying at Virginia Commonwealth University he began shaping a deconstructionist approach built on sound collage. Early output appeared under the name Diamond Black Hearted Boy and encompassed numerous digital albums, tracks, and DJ mixes along with limited physical editions on Disaro and Steak Au Zoo. In 2014 he discontinued that alias and began releasing material under his own name. Late the following year saw the arrival of the Rabit collaboration The Great Game: Freedom from Mental Poisoning (The Purification of the Furies) together with his own Anya's Garden EP. Throughout 2016 he continued working with Rabit as well as Dedekind Cut and Johnny Utterback, while NON issued the mini-album Airport Music for Black Folk, captured during a Berlin residency. Japanese label P-Vine Records brought the acclaimed recording out on CD the next year. Also in 2017 The Vinyl Factory released Amobi's score for Ligia Lewis' performance work Minor Matter. NON and UNO NYC jointly presented Paradiso, the twenty-one-track dystopian epic that includes appearances by Haleek Maul, Dutch E Germ, Elysia Crampton, and additional contributors.